Saving A Beat up 4 Player Simpsons

[Tighe]

Recently I organized a warehouse raid, and SRW got a really beat up 4-player Simpsons. All the insides were good, but the cabinet was beat! I helped him part it out and he gave me the empty cabinet.

The right font bottom corner was destroyed and fixed with fiberglass, which broke too. The OP painted around the characters with dark blue paint, and the characters are all faded and tore up. It looks like someone tried to pry the top of the marquee off with a prybar and that is patched with I don't know what.

I don't want to spend the money to restore this back to a Simpsons, so I am just going to patch it up and paint it black. I have a nice 27" VGA monitor, and this will make a nice MAME/XBOX 360 cabinet.

So far I have sanded/bondo/painted the left side. The right side is in much worse shape. I have borrowed my father's biscuit joiner, and will replace the bottom front corner with it.

Here is the left side, I painted it with Rustoleum Flat Black, and rolled it on with a foam roller. I saturated the roller with mineral spirts before putting it in the paint. It rolled on well, and now it is drying.

I am not going all out on this since I am just MAMEing it, I just want to make it look decent in my arcade.

You might also note the cheapo $2 casters I picked up at Wal-Mart. I normally use the ones that screw right into the leg leveler holes, but those were messed up too.

 

[SuperGunGuru]

I think you had posted pics of this cab in my Simpsons restoration thread from this year. Too bad it was in such bad shape, but at least you can do something fun with it. Good luck!

 

[Tighe]

I think you had posted pics of this cab in my Simpsons restoration thread from this year. Too bad it was in such bad shape, but at least you can do something fun with it. Good luck!

Yes I did, good memory! Yah, it really is not worth it, but even if I change my mind, All I have to do is lay the Simpsons artwork over top. But for now it is too ugly, and needs structural repairs. What I didn't realize is that the original artwork is in 3 pieces. The replacement artwork you got, was it one piece?

Edit:
I just checked the old thread, and it was one.

 

[Tighe]

I think you had posted pics of this cab in my Simpsons restoration thread from this year. Too bad it was in such bad shape, but at least you can do something fun with it. Good luck!

Also, how on earth did you remove the old sideart? The art on mine will not come off!

 

[MKplayer1start]

Konami 4player cabs are nice. When I first got mine it was a TMNT converted to Sunset Riders, and I restored it back to TMNT. when I lost some interest in this arcade hobby few months back and sold off most of my pcbs and my Dynamo cab, the TMNT Konami cab was the only thing that I absolutely refused to let go. I really love that cab.

 

[Tighe]

Konami 4player cabs are nice. When I first got mine it was a TMNT converted to Sunset Riders, and I restored it back to TMNT. when I lost some interest in this arcade hobby few months back and sold off most of my pcbs and my Dynamo cab, the TMNT Konami cab was the only thing that I absolutely refused to let go. I really love that cab.

Did you have to replace the sideart?

 

[Tighe]

Paint came out good but...

...you could still see the lines where the OP had masked off the Simpsons characters and painted, even though I sanded the snot out of it. The razor lines are deep into the vinyl. So I have decided to try coating the side of the cabinet with drywall plaster. I mixed it thin and smoothed it with me huge Stanley square. It reminded me of working concrete. Then I will sand it smooth and put on another coat of paint. Hopefully that will help cover it up. Mostly an experiment since I don't want to peel off the old vinyl.

 

[SuperGunGuru]

Yes I did, good memory! Yah, it really is not worth it, but even if I change my mind, All I have to do is lay the Simpsons artwork over top. But for now it is too ugly, and needs structural repairs. What I didn't realize is that the original artwork is in 3 pieces. The replacement artwork you got, was it one piece?

Edit:
I just checked the old thread, and it was one.

It was one big piece, but I did end up separating the top portion with The Simpsons logo so everything would fit on the cabinet.

I think the citri strip did a lot of work to remove the old vinyl on my cab. At one point the vinyl was sanded for some reason and it make it easier for the stripper to really attack it. A strong paint stripper should loosen the vinyl right up. A heat gun is another option as well.

 

[Tighe]

It was one big piece, but I did end up separating the top portion with The Simpsons logo so everything would fit on the cabinet.

I think the citri strip did a lot of work to remove the old vinyl on my cab. At one point the vinyl was sanded for some reason and it make it easier for the stripper to really attack it. A strong paint stripper should loosen the vinyl right up. A heat gun is another option as well.

Thanks, I always forget I have a heat gun! How smooth is the particle board underneath?

 

[Ghostnuke]

Thanks, I always forget I have a heat gun! How smooth is the particle board underneath?

If it's anything like my TMNT, it's not smooth at all. I put on a few coats of poly to smooth it out before I applied the side art.

 

[Tighe]

If it's anything like my TMNT, it's not smooth at all. I put on a few coats of poly to smooth it out before I applied the side art.

So the vinyl stays!

 

[MKplayer1start]

Did you have to replace the sideart?

One side I removed the sunset riders artwork and found TMNT artwork in really good shape underneath. The otherside I was not as lucky and there was no side art underneath. I actually still need that one side....

 

[benkeezer]

WTF happened? That's not what it looked like when we loaded it in your car! LOL

 

[Tighe]

WTF happened? That's not what it looked like when we loaded it in your car! LOL

You are kidding right? You should see it now.

 

[doon]

You are kidding right? You should see it now.

One of these days I need to take the long drive out west and come play...

 

[Tighe]

One of these days I need to take the long drive out west and come play...

Yes you do.

 

[benkeezer]

You are kidding right? You should see it now.

Looking good now. That thing was a mess when you picked it up.

 

[Tighe]

I have the left side done!

After 4 coats of paint, bondo, sanding, plaster I have the left side looking good:

But after all that work, I decided that leaving the vinyl on caused most of the difficulty. So on the other side which is in worse condition the vinyl is coming off. As suggested the heat gun makes it super easy!

 

[Tighe]

Whats up next

I got all the artwork off the one side and now I need to fix up damage to the cabinet before painting it. I will be using the biscuit joiner for that. Also I have to figure out how to get the adhesive of the cabinet which didn't come off with the heat gun. If I put the belt sander on it now, it will just rip the paper off the sander.

Here is a broken and reglued but the OP area under the control panel box:

Right front corner:

Painted left side:

Right side (you can't see the glue but it is quite tacky):

 

[Tighe]

Got the adhesive off, and fixed the corner.

So I found that Acetone works wonders on removing the leftover adhesive. Don't use oil based removers like Goo Gone, it soaks into the "wood".

I used my father's biscuit joner to add a new corner to the cabinet after I cut off the damaged portion:

I love that biscuit joiner!

All bondoed, and ready to be cut: